You have presented a hypothetical situation concerning a Legal
Services office whose office is near a General District Court.
Many pro se litigants who are not eligible for representation by
the Legal Services office make inquiries to that office and
requests forms.

Under the facts you have presented, you have asked the committee
to opine as to whether attorneys with the Legal Services office
may ethically provide forms to pro se litigants not represented
by Legal Services, and to whom no legal advice would be given.

The appropriate and controlling disciplinary rules relative to
your inquiry are Rules 3.4(d) and 8.4(c):

RULE 3.4 Fairness To Opposing Party And Counsel

A lawyer shall not:

(d) Knowingly disobey or advise a client to disregard a
standing rule or a ruling of a tribunal made in the course
of a proceeding, but the lawyer may take steps, in good
faith, to test the validity of such rule or ruling.

In LEO #1592, the committee opined that where a court requires
that all drafters of pleadings disclose their identity as such to
the court, it may violate former DR 7-105(A)'s prohibition
against violating, or directing a client to violate, a rule of
court as well as former DR 1-102(A)(4)'s prohibition against
misrepresentation. The committee notes that the text of those
rules now appears in current rules 3.4(d) and 8.4(c),
respectively. In LEO #1592, attorneys were drafting the
pleadings for pro se litigants. In contrast, the members of your
staff will merely be providing blank forms. This distinction was
made by the Unauthorized Practice of Law Committee of the
Virginia State Bar in determining that mere provision of forms is
not the practice of law, whereas the completion of those forms
would be. See UPL Op. 73. Using that same distinction, this
committee opines that it would not be "ghost-writing" requiring
disclosure to the court, as contemplated in LEO #1592, for
members of a legal aid staff to provide various legal forms to
pro se litigants, so long as no assistance is provided in the
completion of those forms. Provision of the forms, alone, does
not violate Rules 3.4(d) and 8.4(c).

This opinion is advisory only, based only on the facts you
presented and not binding on any court or tribunal.